Jewish settlers eye `natural' growth

Neighborhoods at heart of debate on Mitchell plan

May 24, 2001|By Hugh Dellios, Tribune foreign correspondent.

That is still Sharon's philosophy, but he agreed in March not to build new settlements so more dovish Labor Party leaders would join his ruling coalition. Meanwhile, he has continued to defend construction to accommodate the natural growth of settler families.

"Let's assume that a family is going to have a baby," Sharon told foreign journalists this month. "What should they do, abortion? What is this madness? They should live three generations in two small rooms?"

Sharon also says he is adamantly against halting settlement construction in exchange for a Palestinian cease-fire. That, he said, would be offering the Palestinians a reward for their violence.

Trying to find a compromise, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres has tried to assure the Palestinians and international community that natural growth will mean demographic rather than territorial expansion. In other words, the settlers could build up in the existing settlements, but not out.

For their part, the Palestinians have always seen the settlements as a provocation and an Israeli effort to make its occupation permanent. Palestinian officials said this month that they had erred when they did not demand an end to all settlement activity before agreeing to the Oslo accords.

Deepening occupation?

"The idea of natural growth is a lie," said Nabil Shaath, a top aide to Yasser Arafat. "The idea is simply to ... deepen occupation and to create facts on the ground to pre-empt the outcome of permanent negotiations."

Some Israelis also are beginning to question Sharon's policy. A poll on Monday indicated that 61 percent of Israelis would accept a settlement freeze if it brings a Palestinian cease-fire.

Sharon's policy also has been attacked by left-wing Israeli groups such as Peace Now, which says thousands of settlement houses stand empty, so no new building is required to accommodate family growth.

Peace Now also doubts Sharon's no-new-settlements promise, accusing him of allowing the creation of 15 new settlements since being elected in February.

The government claims the new sites are part of approved master plans, and some are arguably extensions of existing sites. But others are on hilltops hundreds of yards away that Sharon encouraged settlers to "seize" after the Wye River peace pact was signed in 1998.

Trailers erected

One of the 15 sites consists of five house trailers on a hilltop adjacent to Alon Shevut, which is part of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc southwest of Jerusalem. The settlers say they put up the trailers to keep Arabs from neighboring villages from "squatting" on the land.

Lieberman, the woman from Cleveland, said half of the 200 families moving into Alon Shevut's newer subdivisions are relatives of longer-term residents. That, she said, would qualify them as "natural growth" in the settlers' eyes.

"My kids have just as much right to live here as I do," Lieberman said, describing how her car was shot at coming down the road earlier this week. "It would be a terrible message to agree to a freeze now, because once again you would be rewarding terror."